FAQ

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Frequently Asked Questions
What is yoga?

Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science, which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. It is an art and science of healthy living. The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘Yuj’, meaning ‘to join’ or ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’. As per Yogic scriptures the practice of Yoga leads to the union of individual consciousness with that of the Universal Consciousness, indicating a perfect harmony between the mind and body, Man & Nature. According to modern scientists, everything in the universe is just a manifestation of the same quantum firmament. 

It involves the physical practice of yoga postures called asanas, and breathing exercises called pranayama. Yoga also includes meditation, self-enquiry and the study of yoga philosophy.

  1. Physical Practice (Asana):
    • Asana: Refers to the physical postures or poses practiced in yoga. These postures are designed to promote flexibility, strength, and balance, as well as to prepare the body for meditation.
    • Benefits: Improves physical health, enhances circulation, detoxifies the body, and calms the nervous system.
  2. Breath Control (Pranayama):
    • Pranayama: The practice of controlling the breath, which is considered the life force or energy (prana) in the body. Pranayama techniques involve regulating the breath through specific patterns and rhythms.
    • Benefits: Balances the mind and body, increases lung capacity, reduces stress, and enhances focus.
  3. Meditation (Dhyana):
    • Dhyana: The practice of meditation is central to yoga. It involves focusing the mind, calming thoughts, and cultivating inner awareness. Meditation is used to achieve mental clarity, emotional stability, and spiritual insight.
    • Benefits: Reduces stress, enhances concentration, fosters self-awareness, and promotes a sense of peace.
  4. Ethical Guidelines (Yamas and Niyamas):
    • Yamas: The ethical restraints or moral principles that guide a yogi’s behavior towards others. These include non-violence (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (asteya), continence (brahmacharya), and non-greed (aparigraha).
    • Niyamas: The personal observances or disciplines that guide self-care and spiritual development. These include purity (saucha), contentment (santosha), self-discipline (tapas), self-study (svadhyaya), and surrender to a higher power (Ishvara pranidhana).
  5. Concentration (Dharana):
    • Dharana: The practice of focused concentration, which involves holding attention on a single point or object, such as a mantra, the breath, or an image. It serves as a precursor to meditation.
    • Benefits: Enhances mental focus, improves memory, and deepens meditation practice.
  6. Integration (Samadhi):
    • Samadhi: The ultimate goal of yoga, where the individual experiences a state of oneness with the universe. In this state, the mind is still, the ego dissolves, and there is a profound sense of peace and bliss.
  1. Physical Practice (Asana):
    • Asana: Refers to the physical postures or poses practiced in yoga. These postures are designed to promote flexibility, strength, and balance, as well as to prepare the body for meditation.
    • Benefits: Improves physical health, enhances circulation, detoxifies the body, and calms the nervous system.
  2. Breath Control (Pranayama):
    • Pranayama: The practice of controlling the breath, which is considered the life force or energy (prana) in the body. Pranayama techniques involve regulating the breath through specific patterns and rhythms.
    • Benefits: Balances the mind and body, increases lung capacity, reduces stress, and enhances focus.
  3. Meditation (Dhyana):
    • Dhyana: The practice of meditation is central to yoga. It involves focusing the mind, calming thoughts, and cultivating inner awareness. Meditation is used to achieve mental clarity, emotional stability, and spiritual insight.
    • Benefits: Reduces stress, enhances concentration, fosters self-awareness, and promotes a sense of peace.
  4. Ethical Guidelines (Yamas and Niyamas):
    • Yamas: The ethical restraints or moral principles that guide a yogi’s behavior towards others. These include non-violence (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (asteya), continence (brahmacharya), and non-greed (aparigraha).
    • Niyamas: The personal observances or disciplines that guide self-care and spiritual development. These include purity (saucha), contentment (santosha), self-discipline (tapas), self-study (svadhyaya), and surrender to a higher power (Ishvara pranidhana).
  5. Concentration (Dharana):
    • Dharana: The practice of focused concentration, which involves holding attention on a single point or object, such as a mantra, the breath, or an image. It serves as a precursor to meditation.
    • Benefits: Enhances mental focus, improves memory, and deepens meditation practice.
  6. Integration (Samadhi):
    • Samadhi: The ultimate goal of yoga, where the individual experiences a state of oneness with the universe. In this state, the mind is still, the ego dissolves, and there is a profound sense of peace and bliss.

Yoga offers a wide range of benefits that can improve your physical and mental well-being. Here are 8 benefits of yoga:

  1. Improves flexibility: Yoga poses stretch and lengthen your muscles, increasing your range of motion in your joints. This can help you move more easily in your daily activities.
  2. Builds strength: Many yoga poses require you to hold your body weight in different positions. This can help to build and tone your muscles, improving your overall strength and posture.
  3. Increases balance: Yoga poses challenge your balance and stability. As you practice regularly, you’ll find it easier to maintain your balance in everyday activities, reducing your risk of falls.
  4. Reduces stress: Yoga incorporates breath work and meditation, which can help to calm your mind and reduce stress hormones. This can lead to improved feelings of relaxation and well-being.
  5. Improves sleep: The relaxation techniques you learn in yoga can also help you to fall asleep more easily and sleep more soundly.
  6. Boosts mood: Yoga can help to improve your mood by increasing levels of feel-good chemicals in your brain.
  7. Improves heart health: Some yoga poses can help to improve your cardiovascular health by increasing your heart rate and circulation.
  8. Manages pain: Yoga can help to relieve pain from conditions such as arthritis, lower back pain, and headaches.

Anyone can practice yoga, you don’t need special equipment or clothes, just a small amount of space and the strong desire for the healthier, more fulfilled life, the yoga postures or asanas exercise every part of your body, stretching and toning the muscles and joints, the spin and the entire skeletal system. And they work not only on the body’s frame but on the internal organs, glands and nerves ad well, keeping the system in radiant health.

There are various forms of yoga, each emphasizing different aspects of the practice:

  • Hatha Yoga: Focuses on physical postures (asanas) and breathing exercises (pranayama).
  • Bhakti Yoga: The path of devotion and love for a higher power.
  • Karma Yoga: The path of selfless service and action without attachment to outcomes.
  • Jnana Yoga: The path of wisdom and knowledge, focusing on self-inquiry and understanding the nature of reality.
  • Raja Yoga: The “royal path,” emphasizing meditation and the eight limbs of yoga as outlined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.
  • Kundalini Yoga: Focuses on awakening the kundalini energy at the base of the spine through specific techniques, including postures, breathwork, chanting, and meditation.

Yoga is a versatile practice that can be adapted to suit individual needs, making it accessible to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. It is both a physical exercise and a profound spiritual journey, offering tools for self-discovery, health, and inner peace.

Even if you practice once a week, you’ll feel the difference. If you can, try to practice two to three times a week but don’t let unrealistic expectations stop you from doing shorter practices. 20 to 30 minutes is better than doing nothing at all. In short, do what you can, when you can. Focus on, and be proud of what you do, rather than focusing on what you think you should be doing.

Yin Yoga and “normal” yoga (often referred to as Hatha, Vinyasa, or other traditional styles) differ in various aspects, particularly in their approach to asanas (postures), duration of poses, and the emphasis on tissues targeted during practice.

  1. Nature of Poses:

    Normal Yoga: Traditional yoga styles involve a mix of standing, seated, balancing, and dynamic postures. These practices often focus on building strength, flexibility, balance, and sometimes cardio through a series of movements.

    Yin Yoga: Yin Yoga involves a smaller set of seated or reclined poses held for an extended duration, usually ranging from 3 to 5 minutes or even longer. The emphasis here is not on building muscular strength but on gently stressing the connective tissues, fascia, and joints.

  1. Duration of Poses:

    Normal Yoga: Poses in traditional yoga styles are typically held for a shorter duration, often for a few breaths to a minute or two, emphasizing dynamic movement and flow between poses.

    Yin Yoga: In Yin Yoga, poses are held for an extended period, allowing practitioners to relax deeply into the pose and access deeper layers of the body, including the connective tissues and joints.

  1. Focus on Connective Tissues:

    Normal Yoga: Traditional yoga often targets muscles, working on strength, flexibility, and balance. It engages muscles and can also benefit connective tissues but to a lesser extent.

    Yin Yoga: Yin Yoga specifically targets the deep connective tissues, such as ligaments, tendons, and fascia. The extended hold in poses aims to gently stress these tissues, promoting flexibility and mobility in a more passive way.

  1. Energetic and Mental Aspects:

    Normal Yoga: Traditional yoga styles often incorporate dynamic movement, breath control, and sometimes more energetic practices like Hatha or Vinyasa flow or powerful sequences. The focus can be both physical and mental, aiming to energize and calm the mind.

    Yin Yoga: Yin yoga works deeply into our body with passive, longer-held poses.

          It targets the deepest tissues of the body, our connective tissues – ligaments, joints, bones, the       deep fascia networks of the body and the meridians. This is contrast to a Yang yoga practice such as Vinyasa yoga which targets the muscles.

Energetically, Yin yoga improves the energy flow, enhancing the flow of chi in the organs (Chi means “breath” or “air” and is often translated as “energy flow,” “life force” or “matter energy).”. To be healthy, we need healthy organs as well as healthy muscles. Yin yoga also offers wonderful emotional and mental health benefits. 

Yin Yoga emphasizes a more meditative approach, encouraging practitioners to relax deeply into poses, focusing on breath awareness and cultivating mindfulness. It helps in releasing tension and calming the nervous system.

Both styles of yoga offer unique benefits. Traditional yoga can improve strength, flexibility, and balance, while Yin Yoga complements these practices by targeting deeper tissues and promoting relaxation and flexibility. The choice between the two often depends on individual preferences, goals, and the need for a more dynamic or passive practice on a given day.

Basically, it comes down to whenever you can fit yoga in. The morning is a great time to practice; you might wake up stiff, so opening up your body with some energizing yoga sets you up for the day. In the evening, a more relaxing yoga practice can be a nice way to unwind after work. Some of us are early birds while others are night owls, so experiment with finding your own yoga rhythm and what works for your schedule.

It’s better to have a more or less empty stomach during a yoga session, so leave at least two hours between a main meal and yoga. Digestion of food requires energy and when you do yoga straight after a meal, your energy goes to the muscles you’re exercising and the body can’t digest the food properly. Personally I might have half a banana or a handful of nuts if I feel I’m too hungry to practice, to give me the fuel I need.

Try these easy Post Yoga Bites.

Some women prefer to pause their yoga practice when they have their period while others keep going. Many teachers advise not to do inversions such as Headstand, Handstand, Shoulder stand where the head is lower than the heart as they feel they interrupt the downward flow. Strong yoga twists may also be uncomfortable for some women. It really depends on the individual so listen to what your body tells you.

For more on this topic, read, Should you practice yoga when you’re on your period? If you’re interested in finding out more about practicing yoga during your cycle.

Many people practice yoga as a way to manage their health conditions. There are many different types of classes which suit different health needs and can also be adapted and modified for injuries. However, if you have a medical condition or injury and haven’t practiced yoga before, we recommend that you speak to an experienced yoga teacher (or physical therapist with knowledge of yoga) to get advice about any poses or movements you need to avoid.

We offer lots of Therapeutic yoga videos on line with Shanti Yoga for specific ailments and body parts. However, if you have a medical condition or injury and haven’t practiced yoga before, we recommend that you speak to a medical professional to get advice about any poses or movements you need to avoid.

You will find descriptions of each of my classes by hovering over the class type on the schedule page. In a nutshell, our classes are limited to 10 or less, and you will always use the spring driven equipment. Expect a lot of hands on and personal attention

I recommend bringing comfortable yoga attire, a yoga mat, sunscreen, a refillable water bottle, sunglasses, cap, and any personal items you may need. Check our retreat guide for a comprehensive packing list.

Absolutely! Many of my participants attend solo and find it to be a rewarding experience. Our supportive community and inclusive environment make it easy to connect with others and create meaningful connections.

I offer a variety of accommodations, including shared dormitories, private rooms, and luxury cabins. Each option is designed to provide comfort and relaxation, allowing you to unwind and recharge during your stay. please refer to the type of accommodation offered in each individual retreat, as different retreat has different type of accommodation.

Yes, according to the type of retreat, meals are included in the retreat package. Professional chefs prepare delicious and nutritious meals using locally sourced and organic ingredients, catering to a variety of dietary preferences and restrictions. Please refer to the meals offered in each retreat.

Please refer to each retreat to check transportation conditions

I understand that plans can change, so I offer a flexible cancellation policy. Please refer to our booking terms and conditions for details on cancellations and refunds.

Comfortable athletic wear.